Robert Bruce Avakian (born March 7, 1943)[1] is an American political activist andMaoist philosopher who is the founder and chairman of theRevolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP). Coming out of theNew Left[2] of the 1960s, he has authored the organization’s ideological framework, "the New Synthesis" or "New Communism".[3][4]
In the early 1970s, Avakian served a prison sentence fordesecrating the American flag during a demonstration.[5] He was charged with assaulting a police officer in January 1979 at a demonstration in Washington, D.C. to protestDeng Xiaoping'smeeting withJimmy Carter.[2][13][14] After receiving anarrest warrant, Avakian went to France and applied for political refugee status.[1] In 1980, he gave a speech to 200 protestors in downtown Oakland[15] and his police assault charges were dropped a few years later.[1][2]
Avakian has been the RCP'scentral committee chairman and national leader since 1979.[15][16] In 2016, the RCP USA and others helped form the organizationRefuse Fascism, which called forDonald Trump's removal from office.[17]
In August 2020, Avakian urged his supporters to vote Trump out, calling opposition to the rising tide offascism in the United States a top priority.[18]
Avakian is a controversial figure. Supporters see him as a revolutionary leader and claim his body of work has advanced communist theory and represents a "pathway to human emancipation" from the capitalist system.[19][20] Detractors criticize the RCP as acult of personality around him,[21] which the party has called "lies and slander".[22]
^Avakian, "Bob Avakian Speaks on the Mao Tsetung Defendants' Railroad and the Historic Battles Ahead", Introduction and pp. 18—21.
^Athan G. Theoharis, "FBI Surveillance: Past and Present",Cornell Law Review, Vol. 69 (April 1984); andPeter Erlinder with Doug Cassel, “Bazooka Justice: The Case of the Mao Tse Tung Defendants – Overreaction Or Foreshadowing?”,Public Eye, Vol. II, No. 3&4 (1980), pp. 40—43.
for The Bob Avakian Institute
